This depends on the material you're cutting.
Firstly, whatever material you're cutting always use a spoil board beneath it (for more information see our spoil board knowledgebase article here)
There are many different ways of holding your workpiece, all of which depend on the geometry your cutting and the size and shape of your work piece it's being cut from.
Listed below are some typical ways we hold our workpieces
- Clamping to the Y Bench
- Screwing to the spoil board
- Fixing with double-sided adhesive tape
When you start devising the work holding solution for your particular project, the main thing to remember is to ensure the rollers on the upper X Beam are clamping the areas of uncut material either side of the area being cut.
Large sheet material workpieces are the most straight forward, it simply involves clamping it to the Y Bench and spoil board or screwing it into the spoil board.
Smaller work pieces can either be screwed or fixed (using double-sided tape) to the spoil board. To complete the solution just add upper X Beam clamp roller support pieces as shown in the graphic.
The Upper X Beam Clamp Roller Supports should be at least the same thickness or up to a max of plus 6mm (1/4'') of the work piece.
OK, so i see how I hold the main work piece but what about the object i'm cutting out if I'm not using double-sided tape?
This is pretty straight forward as most CAM packages have the ability to cater for holding your object within your work piece by using pre-programmed work object holding tabs.